After three years of stagnation of the wind power market in Austria, an amendment to the Green Electricity Act (GEA) finally took effect in October 2009. This amendment improves the climate for wind park planners and raises funds for new green electricity projects. Furthermore, a new feed-in tariff was fixed (0.097 €/kWh) for projects that apply for a purchase agreement until the end of 2010. The feed-in tariff is set by an ordinance of the Ministry for Economic Affairs and not fixed in the GEA itself. The tariff is applicable only for the year 2010; in 2011 a new tariff will be fixed bringing some uncertainty for investors. The purchase obligation is limited to a specific amount of capacity (depending on the available funds for new projects) so the number of installations for 2010 is somewhat uncertain. We expect 40 MW of new wind capacity in 2010, and 160 MW in 2011.
